Kenshi (Mortal Kombat)

Kenshi Takahashi is a character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise by Midway Games and NetherRealm Studios. He makes his series debut in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (2002) as a blind swordsman and Special Forces operative. In addition to his sword skills, he possesses telekinetic abilities.

Outside of the games, Kenshi has appeared in various related media, including comic books and the 2011 web series Mortal Kombat Legacy, and is featured in the 2022 animated film Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind. While Kenshi is regarded as the best fighter from the series' three-dimensional era and one of the few characters to successfully transition to the return of the two-dimensional series of games, he has received some criticism as a perceived representation of disability and cultural tropes in video gaming.

Design and gameplay
In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance character designer Allen Ditzig's early concept sketches, the character was called "the Kenshi" ("swordsman") and described as a "spirit hunter". During production, Kenshi was originally named "Blind Gi", which was changed to "Blind Kenshi" before his final name was determined. Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon said that he had included Kenshi in the 2011 reboot game because he and many of the series developers were fans of the character. For Mortal Kombat X, designer Solomon Gaitan took inspiration from samurai and ninja in designing Kenshi's armor, and "tried to keep it more ninja-esque" with a slimmer shape "because too much samurai would be clunky and odd looking." The character's final digital sculpt was completed in a week with some changes made by NetherRealm Studios' art department, as "what works in concept art doesn't always hold up well in 3D."

Kenshi was intended to replace Ermac as the Mortal Kombat series' character that utilized psychokinetic abilities. A physical weapon was added for him to channel his powers into, which Boon explained was done to compensate for his blindness and make him one of the "strongest" characters in Deadly Alliance. Mark Ryan Sallee of GameSpy described Kenshi's special moves in Mortal Kombat: Deception as similar to Ermac's but "not as comboable" while citing his sword attacks as his most potent in the game. According to the site's Armageddon walkthrough, Kenshi is a midrange attacker whose special moves are best utilized at that distance, as anything closer makes him "vulnerable to counterattacks." Kenshi's offense includes creating a temporary psychic image that attacks opponents, first a clone of himself in the 2011 reboot, a demon in Mortal Kombat X, and an "ancestral" spirit in Mortal Kombat 1.

Kenshi has been cited as a difficult character to play in the series' recent installments. In MKX, his playstyle is split into three variations like the other characters, and Bryan Dawson of Prima Games described him as "requir[ing] some patience to play" and who "relies heavily on keeping his opponents at a distance and only closing in when necessary." Kai Adler of GameRant commented that while Kenshi could "dish out incredible damage," he was among MK1's most difficult characters to play "as his moves are very unfamiliar to the rest of the roster", and it was "up to the player to decide whether they want to follow a path that will require much time and practice dedicated to a single character."

Mortal Kombat games
As a born fighter, Kenshi Takahashi wandered Earth in search of worthy competition, defeating opponents simply to boost his pride. He encounters a man named Song who leads him to the supposed location of Sento, a powerful ancient sword. When Kenshi opens a well inside a tomb to locate it, the concentration of imprisoned souls instantly blinds him, and "Song" reveals himself as the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung, who absorbs the souls and leaves Kenshi for dead. The sword telepathically guides Kenshi from the tomb, and Kenshi focuses thereafter on retraining his senses and searching for Shang Tsung.

In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (2002), Kenshi is recruited into the Special Forces to help find missing member Cyrax in the otherworldly dimension of Outworld. During his search, Kenshi encounters Ermac, an enforcer of evil Outworld emperor Shao Kahn who was still under his control despite Kahn's supposed murder by the titular Deadly Alliance of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi. In a moment of pity, Kenshi frees Ermac from Kahn's control, and Ermac hones Kenshi's telekinetic power in return. Kenshi's hunt for Shang Tsung is thwarted by the Red Dragon clan, who destroy the Special Forces headquarters and send Mavado to kill Kenshi, and Mavado defeats Kenshi in battle but leaves him to die.

Kenshi allies himself with Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat: Deception (2004) after the ninja nurses him back to health, but as they attempt to return to Earth, they clash with Hotaru, a neutral but strict guardsman from the realm of Seido who has pledged loyalty to the Dragon King Onaga and is pursuing Sub-Zero.

He joining the Earth heroes in the opening cinematic sequence of the compilation title Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (2006), in a battle amongst the series' then-entire roster of combatants for the elemental Blaze's power. With Shang Tsung believed killed by Onaga, Kenshi ends his revenge quest and returns to Earth, where he eliminates several criminal organizations. He then joins Johnny Cage's faction of heroes for their battle against the evil former Elder God Shinnok.

In the 2011 Mortal Kombat reboot that retells the continuity of the first three series titles, Kenshi is not included in the game's storyline as he was made available to players as a downloadable character (DLC) after the game's release, with his in-game biography copied from Deadly Alliance.

Kenshi is a consultant to a Special Forces unit heading the defense of Earth against Shinnok and Quan Chi's forces in Mortal Kombat X (2015), and prior to the game's events, he engages in a relationship with a Thai-American woman named Suchin, and they have a son named Takeda. However, she is killed by the Red Dragon clan in their pursuit of Kenshi, which leads him to leave Takeda in the care of Hanzo Hasashi for both training and the youth's own protection. Kenshi reunites with the adult Takeda who is also part of the Special Forces unit, and their relationship is initially strained due to Kenshi's absence from his life, but they reconcile with Kenshi training Takeda in utilizing his telepathic abilities. Though the Earth heroes are successful in defeating Shinnok in the story mode's climax, Kenshi is defeated during the battle with his fate afterwards unknown.

In the rebooted storyline of Mortal Kombat 1 (2023), Kenshi is a reformed yakuza member and descendant of the Taira (later Takahashi) clan that had joined the Bakuto for their protection, and he believes obtaining the sword Sento will free his clan from the yakuza's grasp. However, the weapon is owned as a memento by floundering actor Johnny Cage, and Kenshi breaks into his mansion to take it but is defeated in a fight. They are recruited by Earth's protector Liu Kang to defend their realm in the Mortal Kombat tournament, but after Raiden is chosen as Liu Kang's champion, Kenshi and Cage are sent to Outworld to capture Shang Tsung for interrogation, and they infiltrate his laboratory where they believe he is infecting Mileena with a mutating disease. During their attempt to rescue her while not knowing she is already infected, Kenshi is blinded after Mileena stabs him in both eyes as he saves Cage from her attack, and after Baraka aids their escape back to Earth, Cage gifts Sento to Kenshi as payment for saving his life. In the climax, Kenshi assists Liu Kang in saving both Earth and Outworld from Shang Tsung and Quan Chi's forces, after which he focuses on reviving his clan.

Other media
Kenshi appears in two episodes of the 2013 second season of the Mortal Kombat: Legacy web series, in which his origins differ from the games. In a flashback sequence, he is initially a rōnin in feudal Japan who rescues an old traveler from bandits, and the traveler informs Kenshi of the "sword of Sento" crafted by Shao Kahn and guarded by the demonic Ermac; Kenshi succeeds in obtaining the weapon but is blinded by Ermac in the process. They then fight in the Mortal Kombat tournament for possession of the sword before Kenshi kills Ermac with it. Kenshi was played by martial artist Dan Southworth, who wore an actual blindfold for shooting and said that there were "moments where I was just swinging my arms out and was hoping that it connected in the right place, or not."

In the first issue of DC Comics' 2015 comic miniseries Mortal Kombat X: Blood Ties, Kenshi and the young Takeda are attacked by the Red Dragon until being rescued by Hanzo Hasashi, who takes in Takeda for protection and to train as an apprentice of Hanzo's Shirai Ryu clan.

Kenshi is the featured character of the 2022 direct-to-video animated film Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind, and was voiced by Manny Jacinto. In the film's original story, he is depicted as a young warrior trained by an aged Sub-Zero to defeat King Kano's Black Dragon clan in a post-apocalyptic Earthrealm, with his blinding by Shang Tsung from Deadly Alliance included.

Reception
Kenshi is regarded as one of the Mortal Kombat series' top characters by several gaming media outlets. Gavin Jasper of Den of Geek lauded Kenshi as "the best design to come out past the original [series] trilogy" with "a look that feels like Solid Snake mixed with Daredevil," and, despite his friendships with Sub-Zero and Scorpion in past games, "far from a Mary Sue character. [He] canonically gets his ass handed to him by Mavado [in Deadly Alliance] and spends the next game healing from his injuries." Game Informer Marcus Stewart wrote in 2021 that Kenshi's design and gameplay made him "one of the few post-MK4 characters that feels like he belongs with the classic roster," and Jason Wojnar of Screen Rant said the same year, "The series had a hard time introducing new characters that stuck once it transitioned into three dimensions. Kenshi, however, wooed fans from the start with his look and interesting backstory [and] has quickly become a series mainstay as if he was there from the beginning." Kevin Wong of Complex rated Deadly Alliance as one of the best Mortal Kombat fighting titles in 2021 due to its combination of "classic fighters and the new ones — like Kenshi the blind swordsman — which made us excited for the franchise's future," a point of view that was shared by Ravi Sinha of GamingBolt the following year. However, The Daily Eastern News compared the MK 2011 version of Kenshi to that of Kitana in a 2019 article on sexism and video games in regards to costume design playing a role in the objectification of female characters in the MK series. "The male characters seemed more ready to get into a fight, while the females looked like they were about to go to the beach somewhere".

The character inspired blind Evolution Championship Series player Carlos Vasquez to create "The Sento Showdown", a Mortal Kombat tournament held yearly since 2019 catering exclusively to vision-impaired players. He had previously shared accessibility concerns with NetherRealm Studios developer Herman Sanchez several years earlier that resulted in the company adding audio cues to their games beginning with Injustice: Gods Among Us. Vasquez was later hired by NetherRealm Studios as an accessibility consultant.

Jesse Schedeen of IGN criticized the storytelling of the 2013 second season of Mortal Kombat: Legacy for "newcomers like Kenshi requir[ing] a certain amount of back-story to justify their presence", which he felt caused many episodes to rely heavily on flashbacks that disrupted the flow of the plot. Sam Stone of Comic Book Resources praised Manny Jacinto's voicework in Snow Blind as "balancing braggadocio with charisma in effective measure; Kenshi is definitely a headstrong protagonist but is kept in check enough for the audience to become invested in his story." In her 2022 review, Brittany Vincent of IGN praised the film for "weaving a story around one of Mortal Kombat's lesser-known personalities", but opined that the storyline frequently diverted from Kenshi's exploits "when we've already been drawn in and want to learn more about him".

A 2021 publication titled ''Fragile Avatars? Representations of Disability in Video Games described Kenshi, along with Daredevil and Killer7'' character Con Smith, as representing the "blind avenger" who sought revenge against those responsible for their blindness while possessing elevated senses. In his 2022 book Mortal Kombat: Games of Death, David Church noted the series' increase in Japanese cultural influence following the 1999 departure of Mortal Kombat co-creator John Tobias, "such as the blind swordsman Kenshi as a Zatoichi trope." Matthew Essary of Polygon, in a 2023 feature on blind action heroes in popular culture, categorized Kenshi with The Matrix character Neo in the trope of their blindness "actually improving their ability to fight back" due to their supernatural abilities. This trait was criticized by author Jennifer Dalsen in the 2023 book Gaming Disability: Disability Perspectives on Contemporary Video Games as "problematic because video games continue to use otherworldly powers as a way to accommodate or otherwise mitigate a disability," with her citing Kenshi and Perception protagonist Cassie Thornton as examples. Jef Rouner of the Houston Press expressed a similar opinion by unfavorably comparing the "Daredevil-blind" Kenshi to Sly Cooper character Bentley, who "as a wheelchair user isn’t erasing his inability to walk the way someone like Kenshi being psychic effectively erases his inability to see."